Why I stopped counting calories
ConicalFern
Posts: 121 Member
I've been using this website and app since the end of January this year and I've had some great results with it - I lost about 10kg (22lbs) with it, which was about a 12% reduction in my overall weight. I've also been able to keep off the weight I've lost, having being the same average weight for the past few months. I feel great with the weight I am and I'm cycling, swimming and running faster than I ever have. I exercise 6+ times a week, typically burning around 6000-7000 exercise each week. The ability to eat back exercise calories was a huge motivator in getting active again (I haven't done any exercise for the past 2 years until logging into this app) and I've loved every minute of this.
I've been at maintenance for about 4 months now, and throughout that time I've been religiously logging everything I eat, strictly keeping to my weekly calorie goal (within around 100 calories until the past couple of weeks). However, over the past few weeks I've become increasingly aware of the pitfalls of doing this, and as I'll explain below how, for me, I think it's been deleterious. Here are some of the negatives I've encountered whilst counting calories:
- I would rather eat somewhere that published their nutritional info online, so I don't have to worry about what I'm eating when I'm out. This means I miss out on a lot of the nicer, independent places
- I only eat what I can accurately log. For example, it would be good to snack on nuts at work, but because I can't be bothered to weigh them out at home then bring them into work I don't eat them at all, meaning I just snack on carbs. It would probably be better to estimate what I eat, but I don't trust myself to do that.
- On a similar note, I'm often low on my fat macros, so I should have a cheese plate after dinner the counter this, but I can't be bothered to weigh it all so I have something else. Now I've stopped logging everything I can more cheese. Yay.
- I won't cook meals with lots of ingredients but I can't be bothered to weigh them all
- I eat when the app tells me to, not when I'm hungry. I prelog every day more or less a day in advance. I do (did) this so that I knew I wouldn't get to the end of the day and run out of calories. Because I was always scared about getting hungry after dinner I would plan to eat a lot then, even though often I wouldn't really want it. This was often at the expense of snacks in the afternoon when I can get very hungry.
- The most problematic thing for me is that the only thing that matters is the number of calories left over and that I do not go over. I have become so over reliant on this that if I'm worried about going over my calorie goal I will eat something that I know I can't accurately log, so won't bother. This is typically a spoon of peanut butter or a handful of nuts - not great things not to be logging.
- I feel I am a slave to the app. I can never enjoy food without thinking about the 'cost' of eating it, whether it's worth it and so on
Over the past weeks I found the last two have really started to get to me, and I have probably had a 'binge' eating episode about once a week during this period. This typically involves not logging food during the day, and celebrating this lack of accountability by eating what I would estimate to be around double my calorie allowance. Not logging these days meant that I didn't have to worry about the calorie allowance, so I ate far more than I otherwise would. If I were eating like a normal (non-logging) person I would acknowledge that it doesn't matter whether the calories are logged or not, they're all the same. I've been the weight I'm at before without logging anything and I've never suffered from these binge eating episodes before.
With this in mind, I've given up logging, so that I can re-learn what matters is what I eat, not what I log. I'll continue to weigh my portion sizes and myself every morning, but I won't eat to a goal any more, instead eating when I feel I need to. I'm going to try and eat roughly what I was when I was counting calories, but worry less about it. If I start gaining weight again maybe I will go back to logging, or perhaps doing this retrospectively, so I know foods are causing me to go over my calorie goal so I can try and avoid them
Just sharing in case anyone else any thoughts on the above, has gone through anything similar, or has any ideas for why I have suffered in these ways.
I've been at maintenance for about 4 months now, and throughout that time I've been religiously logging everything I eat, strictly keeping to my weekly calorie goal (within around 100 calories until the past couple of weeks). However, over the past few weeks I've become increasingly aware of the pitfalls of doing this, and as I'll explain below how, for me, I think it's been deleterious. Here are some of the negatives I've encountered whilst counting calories:
- I would rather eat somewhere that published their nutritional info online, so I don't have to worry about what I'm eating when I'm out. This means I miss out on a lot of the nicer, independent places
- I only eat what I can accurately log. For example, it would be good to snack on nuts at work, but because I can't be bothered to weigh them out at home then bring them into work I don't eat them at all, meaning I just snack on carbs. It would probably be better to estimate what I eat, but I don't trust myself to do that.
- On a similar note, I'm often low on my fat macros, so I should have a cheese plate after dinner the counter this, but I can't be bothered to weigh it all so I have something else. Now I've stopped logging everything I can more cheese. Yay.
- I won't cook meals with lots of ingredients but I can't be bothered to weigh them all
- I eat when the app tells me to, not when I'm hungry. I prelog every day more or less a day in advance. I do (did) this so that I knew I wouldn't get to the end of the day and run out of calories. Because I was always scared about getting hungry after dinner I would plan to eat a lot then, even though often I wouldn't really want it. This was often at the expense of snacks in the afternoon when I can get very hungry.
- The most problematic thing for me is that the only thing that matters is the number of calories left over and that I do not go over. I have become so over reliant on this that if I'm worried about going over my calorie goal I will eat something that I know I can't accurately log, so won't bother. This is typically a spoon of peanut butter or a handful of nuts - not great things not to be logging.
- I feel I am a slave to the app. I can never enjoy food without thinking about the 'cost' of eating it, whether it's worth it and so on
Over the past weeks I found the last two have really started to get to me, and I have probably had a 'binge' eating episode about once a week during this period. This typically involves not logging food during the day, and celebrating this lack of accountability by eating what I would estimate to be around double my calorie allowance. Not logging these days meant that I didn't have to worry about the calorie allowance, so I ate far more than I otherwise would. If I were eating like a normal (non-logging) person I would acknowledge that it doesn't matter whether the calories are logged or not, they're all the same. I've been the weight I'm at before without logging anything and I've never suffered from these binge eating episodes before.
With this in mind, I've given up logging, so that I can re-learn what matters is what I eat, not what I log. I'll continue to weigh my portion sizes and myself every morning, but I won't eat to a goal any more, instead eating when I feel I need to. I'm going to try and eat roughly what I was when I was counting calories, but worry less about it. If I start gaining weight again maybe I will go back to logging, or perhaps doing this retrospectively, so I know foods are causing me to go over my calorie goal so I can try and avoid them
Just sharing in case anyone else any thoughts on the above, has gone through anything similar, or has any ideas for why I have suffered in these ways.
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Replies
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Prelogging has always worked best for me too. I think it's great to take a break! I'm an avid weight lifter /crossfitter so I bulk and cut. When I'm bulking I do not weigh, I'll still input from time to time just to see macros. When I'm cutting I weigh everything precisely, mostly, but I'm a big believer in living life to its fullest. If I eat out somewhere and can't log, then I just don't log it. Food is a great part of life! But being healthy is too! Good luck to ya on the next chapter in your life!4
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I do think you make some good points and bring up some of the tools people perhaps don't think to incorporate into learning with this app.
I don't know if it's because in the UK we have less chain restaurants but only eating where I can see nutrition info would also drive me potty. As it is, being in the UK, it would also nearly eliminate my ability to eat out and I really enjoy eating out. So I eyeball and guesstimate. So far I have had no issues with this, you just have to be sensible. And I think it's good to equip yourself to judge how much food is reasonable when eating out just through instinct.
I also get where you're coming from with the ingredient heavy meals. I guess for those what's important to me is to know what cut of meat I'm using and any other calorie dense items and again know what is a reasonable portion. I think logging has helped with this because again, you get used to seeing what a portion should look like vs what you'd like it to be.
I'd like to think once I hit maintenance I could also stop logging. I certainly was able to maintain my weight for years prior (albeit still in an overweight range). If that's also something you can do then great, it certainly can make life easier.
Good luck going forward and breaking some of the more unhealthy behaviours that can come from trying to better manage our weight!2 -
I went through something very similar when I went into maintenance. It worked for about a year, then in the second year of not logging, I noticed the weight creeping back up, so I started logging again. It wasn't a lot of weight, just enough to necessitate a small deficit.
There is nothing wrong with not logging food. If you ever need to again, however, the tools are there.8 -
Good luck!1
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I love that you put all this out there. I log every single day (and days ahead of time) religiously, but truth be told...while it's helped me immensely, it bothers me that I'm so hung up on it. I'm not ready to give it up quite yet, but at some point I'd like to.10
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Thanks for putting this together. It's gives points to think about.
I'm still in weight loss mode, so I haven't had to try and navigate maintenance yet. The point about avoiding independent restaurants is something I've found myself doing. We go out to eat a lot less now because I want more control over what's in my food, but I also find myself always opting for the chains, since their calories are online.
I hope when I go into maintenance I can be brave enough to eat in the mom & pop places and guesstimate.
For now, I can't imagine a life without logging.3 -
I stopped for awhile because of some of the reasons you outlined as well. Eventually I had to start again, because while it was great to be enjoying sesame oil and avocado...my portions got bigger and bigger. My weight was just not steady enough for my liking1
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I'm in maintenance. I've stopped logging as well. It was driving me crazy & taking over my life. I'm enjoying eating whatever I want. I still workout 5 days a week. I also weigh myself just to ensure I'm staying within -/+ 5 lbs of my lowest weight. If I see that I'm gaining weight, it's back to logging. I was just afraid that I'd have to log for the rest of my life. So that's my reason for taking a break. I NEED to get used to eating proper portions without logging.1
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Yeah, mfp becoming a crutch is sorta that elephant room. When you get to that stage of eating JUST because you still have a high "green" number at the end of the day - you'll know. I think everyone eventually reaches that stage tbh. Although I'm pretty skilled at eyeballing/guessimating, I'm relishing the intricacies this app offers. For example: sodium, fibre, sugar etc.. I'm enjoying it at the moment. I will say once one reaches the stage of true mastery in maintenance, with the app.. it's only natural you graduate from the app and tackle things with your new found knowledge of nutrition & discipline.1
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Cutemesoon wrote: »I'm in maintenance. I've stopped logging as well. It was driving me crazy & taking over my life. I'm enjoying eating whatever I want. I still workout 5 days a week. I also weigh myself just to ensure I'm staying within -/+ 5 lbs of my lowest weight. If I see that I'm gaining weight, it's back to logging. I was just afraid that I'd have to log for the rest of my life. So that's my reason for taking a break. I NEED to get used to eating proper portions without logging.
Well said. I think most people who start logging should have that goal - reaching your goal weight, stop logging, weight yourself everyday, and start logging again if you've gained 5+/- pounds. As time goes on you learn more about what you should and shouldn't eat to avoid gaining weight, with the goal of never having to log.0 -
I love that you put all this out there. I log every single day (and days ahead of time) religiously, but truth be told...while it's helped me immensely, it bothers me that I'm so hung up on it. I'm not ready to give it up quite yet, but at some point I'd like to.
I think logging, weight, measuring and agonizing over every calorie you eat, especially if you've met your weight goal, is a religion.
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gonetothedogs19 wrote: »I love that you put all this out there. I log every single day (and days ahead of time) religiously, but truth be told...while it's helped me immensely, it bothers me that I'm so hung up on it. I'm not ready to give it up quite yet, but at some point I'd like to.
I think logging, weight, measuring and agonizing over every calorie you eat, especially if you've met your weight goal, is a religion.
It's possible to log and weigh and be perfectly fine with it. Not everyone does get hung up about it.18 -
I don't know... I get a bad feeling about this. You won't eat things now that you can't log accurately, but intend on indulging in all these things once you're free from logging? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. You mention you will weigh portions, and yet you were unwilling to weigh things before? I know not everyone needs to log to maintain (or even lose), but it seems like you may not have a lot of practice at the skills you will need, because you've been avoiding these things. Maybe I'm wrong. I wish you the best, at any rate11
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I don't know... I get a bad feeling about this. You won't eat things now that you can't log accurately, but intend on indulging in all these things once you're free from logging? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. You mention you will weigh portions, and yet you were unwilling to weigh things before? I know not everyone needs to log to maintain (or even lose), but it seems like you may not have a lot of practice at the skills you will need, because you've been avoiding these things. Maybe I'm wrong. I wish you the best, at any rateI don't know... I get a bad feeling about this. You won't eat things now that you can't log accurately, but intend on indulging in all these things once you're free from logging? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. You mention you will weigh portions, and yet you were unwilling to weigh things before? I know not everyone needs to log to maintain (or even lose), but it seems like you may not have a lot of practice at the skills you will need, because you've been avoiding these things. Maybe I'm wrong. I wish you the best, at any rate
Yeah, during a time of struggle doesn't seem like the ideal time to quit. Perhaps you could just move more towards fixing all those issues you were having. Eyeball your portions and give those new restaurants a try and estimate the calories and by all means eat that cheese! Just because you can't be perfect doesn't mean you need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is a middle ground. I still wish you luck, no matter what you choose6 -
I've only been logging my food since August 2014, so not sick of it yet. I often say i'm going to stop weighing and logging, but i just can't. It's like a security blanket, and takes all the guess work and wondering if i'm over or under that day out of it.
I do still enjoy it and love pre logging my day(s), if i ever get sick of it and it becomes a chore then i will revisit going it alone. Someone mentioned MFP being a crutch, i totally agree with this.
As for not having restaurant nutritional info, well I've found a grand total of one joint we go to that publishes it, so i have no choice but to guesstimate, I'm not going to miss out just because i cant be spot on with the calories. Besides, we eat out maybe once every month or so, so doesn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things.
If you can maintain your weight without logging, then go for it. Just keep and eye on your scales and be very aware of portion creep.
ETA: The nutritional info restaurants post should be taken with a grain of salt. I always have the same meal at the place that posts their info, a schnitzel parmi. Sometimes they're huge, other times there's more cheese, less sauce, more chips, less chips. It's never the same twice in a row, it all depends which chef cooks it and what mood they're in that day7 -
This is pretty concerning really, I've not been logging nearly as long a most here, so I've probably not had the same experiences overall.
Not making large meals because of weighing the ingredients or not eating out because you can't find the nutritional info is completely alien to me. It takes a matter of second to put an ingredient on the scale before adding it to the pot. A quick search of the database to find a similar meal to the one you've eaten is not difficult either, I'll simply find the highest calorie choice and go with that. Honestly it looks like excuses rather than reasons, this isn't a religion or addiction, it's weight loss or maintenance.. If eating out puts you back 200 calories then adjust your target/goal next week or the week after. This app is more than a weight loss tool, it helps manage a healthy and sustainable lifestyle and surely that is more important than being 100% accurate at logging??
I'm sure if you've been so strict over the last few years, you should sustain it for some time but I'd imagine meal portions, snacking etc will soon start to sneak back in with time. Good luck, you certainly seem like you need a break from logging maybe you'll be back with a new love for it..17 -
You sound similar to me. I hate cooking things with many ingredients and I hate eating at restaurants with no nutritional value posted but those are often the best restaurants. But it's rare I do either and I'm getting better with just guessing and using quick add calories. It just drives me crazy when I see something that looks great and I don't want to try it because it doesn't have nutritional value posted. Like I went to the local produce store yesterday and they had some roasted peppers and i almost didn't buy them. Heck even cooking something as simple as popcorn has turned complicated. I need to weigh my oil and popcorn and then weigh the yield to get an accurate count. It's made me make popcorn less and less or only make it when I won't have to share.1
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I think everyone has to find her own path that works, and that there's no "should" that applies to other people, as long as they're finding a way to accomplish their goals. That said, I think it's laudable that you've shared some of the pitfalls you've encountered, and how you plan to deal with them.
I'm at about the same point you are, in that I've been on maintenance since about March of this year. But many of the problems you've encountered sound completely alien to me. This is not a criticism - just a statement that we're very different people. The differences among people make life interesting, IMO!
Please don't take this amiss - I'm not trying to argue you out of your position, or critique you being you, because I feel like you know what's best for you. But I am going to comment on how I personally feel in my own life, about some of the same points, since this is posted in "General Diet & Weight Loss Help" and I think it may be useful for new MFP-ers to hear multiple views.
When I eat out, I love independent restaurants - prefer them. I've just used my eyeballed estimates of portion size, and picked close-looking MFP database entries (on the higher-calorie side of the potentially similar ones out there), and that's worked fine for me while losing 60+ pounds. It may help that I don't eat out more than a few times a week, as I like to cook (and feel like the foods I cook at home are tastier & more satisfying than most restaurant fare). Also, I do re-visit some of the same local restaurants, and if I have favorite menu items I'll eat again, I save my estimates as a meal so I can re-use them (with perhaps a little tweaking).
I find weighing food very easy and efficient, using tricks like building a salad in a bowl & zeroing between ingredients (among others).
I don't pre-log, and feel no urges like the one you report, to eat hard-to-log foods as "permission" to overeat - I'm not even sure what a hard-to-log food really is, for me, as the ones you mention seem easy to me. For peanut butter, I put the jar on the scale, zero & take out a spoonful to eat, record the negative. Easy. For nuts, I throw a clean plastic yogurt-tub lid on the scale, zero, dump on my portion of nuts, record, carry them off to the living room to eat. Easy.
I usually log each meal soon after I eat it, and seem to have a fairly good intuition about where I am in my daily calorie goal while cooking the next meal. (This intuition is something that developed over time - I guess I've been using MFP longer than you, having started July 2015, and I was rough-estimating calories for a few months before that.) I can "just cook" and come pretty close to a target number of calories.
To me, mastering the weight-loss arithmetic was psychologically powerful. I don't fret if I go over my daily goal by a bit - while losing, I knew about what my deficit was, so I knew that minor over-goal amounts were just a slight delay in reaching my ultimate goal, so I didn't stress about them.
For example, if I was losing a pound a week, my deficit was 500 calories, so if I ate 250 over goal, I knew it wasn't really a big deal - I'd just get to my ultimate weight goal half a day later. Even eating over maintenance seemed OK, as long as it didn't happen very often - 1000 over maintenance (1500 over goal) when at a 500-calorie deficit? Sometimes it was worth it to lose that 3 days of progress (birthday, holidays). And it also wasn't a big deal, as long as it only happened once or twice a month.
One thing I love about logging is the ability to review my diary, or to fill out my macros in the last meals/snacks I eat during the day. I feel like my overall way of eating & nutrition (thus health) have benefitted greatly. When I have a diary, I can go back and see what trade-offs I could make differently, to get better nutrition, tastiness, or satiation. If I'm short on protein or healthy fat late in the day, knowing that helps me pick my bedtime snack for the best overall outcome.
By using this practice of diary review, I was able to figure out that I needed protein-rich snacks if I got hungry at any other time than when a meal was imminent, in order to avoid cravings/bingeing later. Also, I learned that a hearty, higher-protein breakfast helped me make it through the whole day without getting hungry or crave-y. Since everyone's satiation seems to differ, this was useful & helpful knowledge I could glean from my diary, but no one else would be in a position to tell me.
Even in maintenance, I like the "science fair project" aspect of logging. I even find it empowering, because it makes it so easy for me to maximize nutrition and enjoyment, without worrying that I'm going to start packing on the pounds again. I'm not sure I'll log forever, but I expect to keep doing it for the foreseeable future.
We're all very different in how we look at the world, and that's a good thing. I applaud you for sharing your views and perceptions - I think that's pretty brave, and a good example. That's why I decided to share mine on your thread, too - I hope that's OK with you. Thanks for getting the ball rolling!12 -
I don't know... I get a bad feeling about this. You won't eat things now that you can't log accurately, but intend on indulging in all these things once you're free from logging? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. You mention you will weigh portions, and yet you were unwilling to weigh things before? I know not everyone needs to log to maintain (or even lose), but it seems like you may not have a lot of practice at the skills you will need, because you've been avoiding these things. Maybe I'm wrong. I wish you the best, at any rate
I weighed everything I log, but every now and then (not often) I would cheat and eat something knowing that I won'g log it (actually often the guilt would make me log it the next day). This often leads to a 'cheat' episode whereby I eat everything in sight.
In particular with the cheese, the issue is not weighing, but rather logging it, alongside a few grapes,crackers etc.. It's just such an effort in comparison to grabbing a bowl of cereal.
That said, the binge episodes are really the reason why I've stopped and things that have led to them, rather than things like not eating nuts at work.0 -
JoshuaMcAllister wrote: »This is pretty concerning really, I've not been logging nearly as long a most here, so I've probably not had the same experiences overall.
Not making large meals because of weighing the ingredients or not eating out because you can't find the nutritional info is completely alien to me. It takes a matter of second to put an ingredient on the scale before adding it to the pot. A quick search of the database to find a similar meal to the one you've eaten is not difficult either, I'll simply find the highest calorie choice and go with that. Honestly it looks like excuses rather than reasons, this isn't a religion or addiction, it's weight loss or maintenance.. If eating out puts you back 200 calories then adjust your target/goal next week or the week after. This app is more than a weight loss tool, it helps manage a healthy and sustainable lifestyle and surely that is more important than being 100% accurate at logging??
I'm sure if you've been so strict over the last few years, you should sustain it for some time but I'd imagine meal portions, snacking etc will soon start to sneak back in with time. Good luck, you certainly seem like you need a break from logging maybe you'll be back with a new love for it..
It's more than a second. It takes a few seconds to weigh it, yes, but then you have spend ages finding it in the database and when you're in a rush to get everything in. A good example of it adding time is parmesan cheese (again!) on my pasta. I love putting it on, but weighing it adds so much time; I have to weigh the bowl, grate it into the bowl (where it tends to go everywhere) then weigh it. Now I can eat similar amounts and just grate it straight onto my meal.
The things like the effort of weighing big foods and not eating out independent places are relatively minor in comparison to binge eating episodes. Those are the real reason why I'm stopping, the other things I just things I won't miss. Below is a typical episode I retrospectively logged. Eating to maintaince then doing this is going to lead to weight gain faster than not logging everything.
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